


Heroes Who Launched 1,000 Ships

by martial_quill



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 01:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martial_quill/pseuds/martial_quill
Summary: They sure as hell weren’t expecting what Trish calls a ‘ship war’ to be one of the results of their relationship.In which Matt is too sober, Jessica’s sense of humour is questionable, Malcolm and Trish are saints, and Danny Rand is an idiot.





	Heroes Who Launched 1,000 Ships

**Author's Note:**

  * For [valkyeet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyeet/gifts).



They’re in the goddamn farmer’s market, of all places, when it starts.

“Aren’t they adorable?” Mrs Almeida says.

“Who?” Mrs Mahoney asks.

Mrs Almeida jerks her thumb to the stall next to them, even as she continues to examine the tomatoes. You can never be too careful with tomatoes. Beside them, a young man and woman are discussing the merits of the strawberries.

“They look fine to me,” the woman says.

There’s a small quirk to her mouth, the shadow of a smile, and her black hair is curling against her neck.

“Trust me, they’re going to be off in a couple of days. I can smell it.”

“God, you’re weird.”

“And you’re a ray of sunshine.”

Mrs Mahoney is grinning now, too. “Reminds me of how I used to talk to my Teddy.”

“I’m so glad Mr Murdock found someone good for him,” Mrs Almeida says, finding a tomato that should last for about a week.

“She’ll be able to keep him out of trouble, I think,” Mrs Mahoney agrees, moving onto the zucchini selection. “Super strength should be good for something.”

“I _knew_ her face was familiar! Just as well, really. The boy’s a magnet for trouble.”

Mr Murdock abruptly starts coughing, and the young woman thumps him in the back, once, twice.

“C’mon, Matt, you can’t choke on me yet,” she says.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Mr Murdock says, pushing his glasses up his nose, and clearing his throat. “Come on. We should go see if they’ve got any blueberries.”

“Aren’t they out of season?”

“...are you capable of feeding yourself, or do you exist solely on what Trish, Malcolm and I feed you?”

“Counsellor, don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”

“I can’t believe you just ended a sentence in a preposition.”

“You fucking nerd,” the woman says, turning and carding her hand through his hair, messing it up. The brown strands glint red in the sunlight. “Fine, let’s go.”

Mrs Mahoney turns to Mrs Almeida. “How long, do you think?”

“Since the start, or before the proposal?” Mrs Almeida shrugs. “Hard to say, on the latter.”

“Ten bucks says it takes them about a year. Young people are so slow about these things.”

“It’s all the second guessing. Not healthy for them,” Mrs Almeida agrees. “Let’s go look at the eggplant. I’d like to make moussaka.”

* * *

 

Normally, they’re better at dodging notice.

Normally, they’re stealthy, both of them preferring to keep a low profile. Well, Matt prefers his profile to be low’s, and Daredevil’s to be as reasonably high as possible for a vigilante. A symbol is useless in a vacuum. And Jessica’s had enough attention to last for a fucking lifetime.

But tonight they’ve had a pretty…weird night.

It had started the way most of their dates do: take-out and shooting the shit on Matt’s roof. But then she’s pretty sure they ended up fighting some kind of insane robot, and throwing them into the alley walls hadn’t been just quite enough to destroy them. Matt’s gloves had been soaked through with blood by the time they’d been done, and she’d been bleeding at her arms, bruised, and had a nasty cut over her eye.

They had been scrambling up the fire escape, Matt’s upgraded billy club – how Melvin had converted the thing into a grappling hook, Jessica will never know – hooked around the roof adjacent.

“How are you planning on swinging that?”

“Rappel into the building, and scale it. ‘snot that hard,” Matt says. But he freezes mid-sentence and swivels on the rail of the fire escape – the guy’s got the balance of a fucking _cat_ to do that – and tilts his head, opening his mouth and inhaling.

“You’re bleeding.”

Her chest feels a little tighter, knowing that all of that sensory perception – heightened hearing, taste, touch, smell – is all focussed on her. Every creak of her muscles, every fluid ounce of alcohol, every drop of sweat and blood.

“It’s fine,” she manages to get out, but he’s reaching out, the leather of his glove both soft and tacky with blood and metal. His thumb swipes over her cheekbone, stroking it, and she can’t stop her pulse from spiking at his proximity, can’t stop herself from sighing like a fucking teenager despite being over thirty years old, because _goddamn, Matt._

She leans into the touch, closing her eyes for a second, and his exhale is shaky, too, a hitch in his breath. He’s almost certainly tracking her pulse, and that’s...actually pretty hot.

The corner of his mouth tilts into a smirk. Noting her reaction.

“Don’t forget to disinfect it,” he says, because he is a fucking hypocrite as far as personal wellbeing is concerned. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The cord of his hook goes tight as he jumps off the fire escape, and he crouches against the side of the building before scaling it like a spider.

She watches him for a long moment, before jumping off the fire escape and starting the walk back to her apartment.

* * *

 

**Humans of New York**

**@humansofnewyork**

Spotted in Hell’s Kitchen! **#Defenders**

 

**Darcy Lewis**

**@itsanequationlookitup**

**@humansofnewyork** OH MY GOD I AM SCREAMING IT’S MY FAVOURITES **#Defenders**

 

**Darcy Lewis**

**@itsanequationlookitup**

**@humansofnewyork**

THIS MADE MY SHITTY DAY INFINITELY BETTER

NOW I CAN GO BACK TO DEFENDING NET NEUTRALITY INSPIRED BY MY BABIES  **#Defenders**

 

**Karen Page**

**@kareninapage**

**@itsanequationlookitup** As if crime in Hell’s Kitchen didn’t have enough to deal with when it was just **#Daredevil. #Defenders**

 

**Claire Temple**

**@nightnurse**

**@aliasinvestigations** Something I should know about? **#Defenders**

 

**Alias Investigations**

**@aliasinvestigations**

**@nightnurse** The reports of her love life have been greatly exaggerated. **#Defenders** –M.D

* * *

 

“See, next time you and your boyfriend go getting caught on camera, you should probably give me a heads-up,” Malcolm says.

Jessica blinks at the wall. Beside her, Matt snuggles further into her back, pressing a soft kiss between her shoulder blades, his chest warm against her back. His chest hair is tickling her a little.

“Malcolm, speak goddamn English,” she orders into the phone.

Malcolm huffs. “You know Humans of New York?”

“Yeah, I know of it.”

“Apparently he was in Hell’s Kitchen last night, and he got a photo of you and Daredevil on a fire escape. You’re not kissing, but you’re looking like you want to. He’s sort of touching your face. Anyway, it’s trending on twitter, and everyone’s squealing about hashtag Defenders. I didn’t know what to say–”

Ice cold dread forms a ball in her stomach, and Matt’s thumb swipes over her shoulder in smooth strokes, trying to soothe her.

_“What did you do?”_

“I quoted Mark Twain. Said ‘The reports of her love life have been greatly exaggerated.’”

She groans. “That’s just going to add fuel to the fire.”

“While simultaneously being evasive enough that you can stay out of it. Besides, it’ll be good for business, and nobody’s asking enough questions about wondering who Daredevil is.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve been on social media,” Matt cuts in, his voice against the nape of her neck, his hand circling lightly over her hip. “In the suit. It’s how I got the damn name in the first place. It won’t be the last.”

“Yeah, about that, you should also know there’s an Twitter account dedicated to your butt in the suit,” Malcolm says, his voice trembling with suppressed laughter.

She rolled over, in time to see Matt’s eyebrows shoot up.

_“What?”_

“Yeah, Twitter handle is ‘at daredevil booty’,” Malcolm reads out. “With a number of shots of your ass. Can I ask what your secret is?”

“Ninja-kicking,” Jessica cuts in. She’s fascinated with the shade of magenta that Matt’s face is rapidly becoming.

“Of course it is. By the way, there’s a message from a client here for you, an André Giuliano. Says he’d really like an appointment.”

She sighs. “Call him back and ask him if 3:00pm is good.”

“Okay, will do. Later.”

“Later.”

She hangs up, and flops back down onto Matt’s arm, staring up at the ceiling. “Goddammit.”

Matt presses another kiss to her shoulder. “You okay?”

“I don’t like people paying attention to me.”

“I know.”

“I don’t like being seen.”

“I know. You don’t have to come out with me at night, you know.”

Well, that was some fresh bullshit.

“Right. And let you go and be a martyr with no back-up?” she scoffs, tugging gently on a lock of his hair at the crown of his head. “Yeah, no.”

His smile is soft. “You worry about me, Jones?”

_Yes._

She rolls her eyes, but his brows contract in worry, realising that he’s said something wrong. Her heartbeat must have given her away.

Her hand slips down from the crown of his head, brushing over his cheek before trailing it down his jaw, his neck, settling her fingers onto the pulse point at the base of his throat. It thumps against her thumb, _ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum_ , and she kisses him, hard, no finesse whatsoever in the motion.

He works with it, as he always does; adjusting the angle, taking her pressure and returning it, kissing her back hungrily.

When she pulls back, she is breathing hard, and his breath is warm over her lips.

The answer to his question is suspended between their mouths, as fragile as they are and are not.

* * *

 

Danny’s call comes in when Matt’s at the office.

“Since when are you and Jess a thing?” he asks, incredulous.

Matt clucks his tongue into the phone. “Is there an actual point to this question, or are you just bored at work?”

“Matt. I know neither of you are exactly the most open people–”

Matt is _very_ proud of himself for not making a comment about Danny’s willingness to tell people about the Iron Fist.

“But this is kinda important!” Danny finishes.

“We can still fight whatever sealed-evil-in-a-can comes out next week,” Matt says.

Danny sighs. “I guess you’re right there. Hey, Matt?”

“Yeah?”

“...don’t screw this up, okay? You’ve both been through enough.”

Matt sighs. “Yeah, I’m doing my best. Thanks for calling. Word to the wise, don’t call Jessica. Or say anything on Twitter.”

“...um.”

“...you went on Twitter? Danny, _why?!”_

_“It seemed like a good idea at the time!”_

* * *

 

**Danny Rand**

**@theofficialdannyrand**

Congratulations to our fellow team-mates Jessica Jones and Daredevil!

 

**Luke Cage**

**@forwardalways**

**@theofficialdannyrand**

...Danny, you don’t congratulate people just for dating.

* * *

 

**thisismyfightsong:**

IT’S FUCKING CONFIRMED THEY’RE DATING NEW YORK’S SUPERHEROES ARE DATING

**Ridetoharlem:**

Imagine them double-dating with the Night Nurse and Luke Cage.

**Half-eatenmozzarella:**

Okay, real talk, you guys, I’m a Hell’s Kitchen local and I’ve seen Jessica Jones around, and you know what?

She’s kind of an asshole. What’s with the adulation?

**iwannahearyourheartbeat:**

I dunno, maybe it has something to do with that time she stopped a mind-controller?

The time when a girl got into a seemingly hopeless situation and Jessica Jones moved heaven and earth to get her out of there?

The fact that, [in her testimony](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11157735), she talks about how she went through psychological torture and abuse and eight months of captivity at the hands of an actual goddamn sociopath, and do you know what she did when she got out, after already having lost her family? She started a business of private investigations. Mostly catching adulterers, but fun fact: she has a tendency to work pro bono cases for missing persons, such as the John Raymond case?

That she and Daredevil and her adoptive sister, Trish Walker, actually worked together to bring down a child pornography ring last month?

Toss in the fact that she has super strength, all of her friends are on the record as saying that she is the best person to have at your back in a fight, and, oh yeah, Danny Rand – remember him? Corporate hero? – says that he considers her like the _older sister he never had?_

And you ask why we like her.

**Half-eatenmozzarella:**

Daredevil fucking deserves better.

**thisismyfightsong:**

Dare you to say that to his fucking face.

**tengriismfactsdaily:**

Okay but like

Have you seen _this guy_?

<image description: a young man and Jessica Jones in a bar. The young man is leaning against the wall, a cane in one hand, red sunglasses on. Jessica is looking up at him, her head thrown back, caught mid-laugh; his smile is soft, and his hand spans across most of her waist.>

Hi. Another Hell’s Kitchen local here.

Don’t get me wrong: I have an undying degree of gratitude to Daredevil. He saved our city, he stood by us even when we vilified him without trial, and he got half of our system’s free from Wilson Fisk’s influence.

_But he’s not the only hero in this neighbourhood._

Meet Matt Murdock. I’ve known this guy for as long as he’s been alive.

He was born here in Hell’s Kitchen in 1989, and he went blind at the age of nine, when he pushed an old man out of the way of a chemical spill that proceeded to take his sight. I’ll repeat that: _at age fucking nine_.

He lost his Dad shortly after, who was his only living family. Battlin’ Jack Murdock was a hero to me, and to many other people in the neighbourhood. Stubborn, strong, persistent, and a man who loved his son more than anything in the world.

So what does Matt Murdock do, when he’s sent to an orphanage and reportedly develops problems with what seem to be akin to sensory processing disorders?

I’ll tell you what he does. He develops a 4.0 GPA average. The nuns at Saint Agnes photocopied his college admissions essay because it was the most beautiful tribute to Thurgood Marshall, the impact of racism and bigotry, and the hope of humanity’s ability to overcome that they’d ever read. He gets into Columbia for his undergraduate, double-majors in criminal justice and political science, and then goes onto law school, where he graduates summa cum laude. And then he could go and intern at this high-powered corporate law firm which makes billions of dollars every year defending corporations, and representing people in the ICC.

And Matt Murdock looks at them, and goes, _fuck you, I can do better_.

So he opens up Nelson and Murdock, takes up the unwinnable case of Wilson Fisk with his partner Foggy Nelson, and fucking wins it, which Daredevil could not have done without his help, and then decides that he’s going to be some sort of cross between Mother Theresa and Sir Thomas More. He helped so many people in the Kitchen turn their lives around, and when his firm broke up because he blew one case?

He kept doing it.

 _He kept helping people_.

Despite the fact that helping people, from the time he was nine, has brought him so, so much fucking grief.

He won an eleven million dollar lawsuit for Aaron James; represented a class action suit on behalf of 47 women, mostly from Asian and Latina backgrounds, against exploitative practises in the nail salons they were working in; and after going to rehab for a drinking problem, got back in the game,[sued the NYPD for their treatment of the Kate Bishop case](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13066584/chapters/29889045), and fucking won.

Helping people hurt him, and he did it anyway.

 _Much like Jessica Jones._ Read her testimony.

Anyway, tldr: Daredevil’s great, but look at the way she smiles with Matt Murdock.

Do you know where I saw that kind of smile last? I’ll tell you. I was looking at my husband.

  **Heyijustmetyou** : You know, guys, there’s a really obvious solution here.

<.gif of Tulio and Miguel: ‘Both?’ ‘Both?’ ‘Both. Both is good.’>

**Notes: 51,459**

**Jfkonrollerskates** replied to this: wait is nobody curious about who daredevil actually is?

 **iamnobird** replied to this: @jfkonrollerskates it’s the newest thing: we define men by who they are in relation to women.

 **zoe-nightshade** reblogged this

 **zoe-nightshade** replied to this: @iamnobird criminal charges are kinda important dude

 **iamnobird** replied to this: So’s the fact that Daredevil saved my cousin from being kidnapped. I don’t care who the hell he is. I’m just grateful.

 **notdyinginthenameofscience** replied to this: @trishtalk: Thoughts?

* * *

 “You two are unbelievably lucky,” Trish says.

“We are,” Matt agrees, while Jessica huffs and takes another bite of his pad thai.

“I mean, Danny Rand implies that he might know who Daredevil is on Twitter, and what gets caught into the conversation? Whether Jessica Jones belongs with Matt Murdock, or with Daredevil.”

“...these people have way too much time on their hands,” Matt sighs, standing. “I’m getting a drink. You want some?”

He is not at all surprised to sense Jessica’s nod.

“Fine. I’ve only got beer, though.”

“Ugh. Your beer’s shitty. Any whiskey?” Her tone is deliberately petulant, heartbeat light and happy. Content. Teasing him, even.

“Go check your damn flask,” he says, unable to suppress a chuckle.

“True love, ladies and gentlemen,” Trish muses into her curry. “True fucking love. You know I’m not paid enough to deal with this shit?”

“Since when do you get paid to deal with family?”

“Good point. Oh, hey – oh, _wow_.”

“Wha – oh. _Oh_.”

He sighs. “Ladies, care to fill me in?”

“There’s, um, a contingent of people who believe the best solution to the aforesaid dilemma is…”

“A threesome. There’s a drawing on the screen of you, and me, and you again, only as Daredevil instead of Matt. Funny, the identical mouth should have clued them in.”

His mouth, which just didn’t quite seem to work anymore.

“I mean, at least they’ve got the fact that I don’t like anal down,” Jessica comments.

“I so did not need to know that,” Trish says, and Matt reaches for the bottle of whiskey.

He’s way, _way_ too sober for this.

* * *

 

_The Defenders’ Night Out!_

Posted by: I Really Wanna Be Your Friend

I’m sure I can’t be the only Jessica fan in the crowd. Her sense of style and effortless cool, her constant smokey-eye look, her complete inability to give a fuck about her public perception, the fact that she could probably make a living as a supermodel but chose to become a PI, and not to mention her incredible history as a superhero. Plus, she has super strength. Just how cool can a girl get?

She was spotted at Hell’s Kitchen bar Josie’s last night, with Matt Murdock, local hero and attorney; Luke Cage, hero of Harlem; the night nurse, Luke Cage’s girlfriend, Claire Temple; celebrity star Trish Walker; and local superhero, Daredevil. Absent from the group was boy billionaire and martial arts vlogger, Danny Rand. The group had a fabulous time, laughing and chatting like old friends.

But I found this particular photo interesting:

  
<image description: Jessica Jones flanked by Daredevil and Matt Murdock. Matt Murdock is leaning in to kiss her on the right corner of her mouth; Daredevil is kissing her temple and laughing. In the background, Trish Walker is lifting her shot glass in toast and cheering, and Luke Cage and Claire Temple are exchanging exasperated glances. Jones is smiling at the camera, a challenging glint in her eye. >

If that’s not a ‘fuck yeah, I’m poly and whatcha gonna do about it’, then I’m a goddamn alien.

 **Notjustaweatherpattern** commented on this at 12/04/2017:

Hey, look at that! It’s one of the Chitauri, who set up a blog!

––––

_Plus ça change, plus c’est pareil._

_End_

**Author's Note:**

> To spell things out: Trish wrote the blog post, Danny paid for his meddling by dressing as Daredevil for the night, Colleen took the photo, Foggy commented on it, and a whole new war began over whether Jessica Jones was actually polyamorous or not.
> 
> @notdyinginthenameofscience is obviously Darcy Lewis, as is @itsanequationlookitup.
> 
> Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil: French proverb meaning, 'the more it changes, the more it stays the same.'
> 
> Thanks must go to @livingvakariouslythroughyou/@youveneverbeenalone for her help with this.


End file.
